The Abuja Federal High Court is scheduled to arraign Binance executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, on Thursday.
Gambaryan and Anjarwalla will face charges before Justice Emeka Nwite, with two separate cases filed against them.
One case, filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), accuses them of money laundering with five counts. The other case, brought by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), involves four counts related to various tax infractions.
Anjarwalla, who evaded custody on March 22, will be arraigned in absentia before Justice Nwite.
In the charge filed by the EFCC on March 28, Binance executives are accused of laundering approximately $35,400,000.
According to count one of the charges, the defendants allegedly conducted the specialized business of other financial institutions without a valid license between January 2023 and January 2024 in Abuja.
The EFCC contends that this action violates Section 57(1) and (2) of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, punishable under Section 57(5) of the same Act.
In the FIRS charge, marked FHC/ABJ/CR/115/2024 and filed on March 22, the defendants are accused of failing to register with the FIRS to pay relevant taxes while providing services to subscribers on the Binance platform.
The FIRS argues that this constitutes an offense punishable under Sections 8 and 29 of the Value Added Tax (VAT) Act of 1993 (as Amended), Section 40 of the FIRS Establishment Act, 2007 (as amended), and Section 94 of the Companies Income Tax Act (as amended).
On March 18, Justice Nwite had directed Binance to provide the EFCC with comprehensive data or information on all individuals trading on its platform from Nigeria.
The judge issued the interim order following an ex-parte motion filed by EFCC’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho, to enable the EFCC to investigate claims of money laundering and terrorism financing activities on Binance’s platform.
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